Context:

Key Concepts:

What is God's righteousness observed doing?:

Identifying the faithless generation and including disciples of Jesus as part of it.

Having Jesus help a man through his unbelief

Identifying prayer and fasting as the reason that commissioned disciples could not deliver the son.

Continuing to frame the context that He would not be there much longer, that He has been given over to men and would be killed.

What does this tell us about God's righteousness?:

Jesus had to suffer the faithless every day while on this earth and from every direction. How long He shall suffer us becomes the question then. Why would He not wish to continue to suffer us longer than He will? Is it not for HIS love's sake? HIS mercy's sake that He does it? First and foremost it is for HIS truth's sake and HIS design's sake that it is not for much longer He will allow for our folly. At some point man will have to get on with it.

How much is unbelief and how much misdirected belief? The discourse follows that all things are possible to him that believes. Believes what? Believes in all things being possible or believes in Jesus the Anointed Son of God? The answer was that Jesus intended without a word to help his unbelief (before the other caught up to them) by performing that which he had asked. In other words the deliverance came first, the deliverance was meant to help build the man's belief. Belief in what? Belief in all things being possible or belief in Jesus the Anointed Son of God? If not for the belief in Jesus the Christ first how could this one of all things be possible if the man was yet to fully believe? Now the man has been redirected and believes all the more in Jesus the Anointed Son of God! If for the belief in all things, what need be Jesus from here on out? The man has become the anointed. Which do you think better serves God's righteousness?

How is man reacting?:

The people running towards them must indicate that Jesus the man and his son must have separated from them or that the others had stepped away.

The scribes interest in the disciple's failure is predictable.

Notes:

Fasting had been somewhat discouraged by Jesus during His earthly ministry, the engagement feast of the Groom. That would be to lay the blame strictly at the foot of the disciples though and Jesus does not seem to do that. He blames the faithless generation instead, perhaps connecting the other's responsibility as a generation of people to prayer and fasting for the reason that men of God could perform their Christ empowered works.

Faithless generation is nearly always brought up in the context that Christ would only for so long be here with us as well as suffering us.

The nature of a evil spirit is not to cohabit with a hospitable host, it is always to destroy the host. Satan himself intends only to steal harm and destroy. Why we think any good would be intended or that we could just get along or that they seek to replace the goodness of God with a goodness of their own is completely unfounded given the scriptural evidence. The temptation is that they could lead us into being as gods not the reality, the reality is that they despise us and what we represent in their severed relationship to God; the plans God had for us are the original cause for their fall and damnation.

Key Messages:

What does this say about our present condition?

I have heard many say that they would rather be in hell than heaven because the sinners are more fun. The thought I guess is that Satan is going to be able to replicate all the things that God will have pulled out of providing. Think of all the vast and manifold mechanisms God has in place for providing for pain and hunger and thirst and wellness that Satan will have to somehow manufacture. Concerning to me though is that even the devils fear the torment of that place and time and beseech Jesus not to torment them before that time. Concerning is the evidence that Satan has never been discussed as an alternate God who is capable or even desirous of being any type of God to these much inferior worms that were the cause of his disgust with God's plan. Satan's thought rather is that if he is going down so are they. They're thought is that this much puffed up self exalted being that somehow unbelievably deceived the nations is now going to provide for them all the things only God could just so that they could continue to party.

Men tend to draw a multitude of men around them only when they fail. Can you think of an instance reported where a multitude gathered around the disciples for any of the other hundreds of successes the short time that they were given the power? No, giving these men credit would be to give Jesus credit for He was the one surely that empowered these men to do this.

It is rather awkward logically that so many are of the belief that it is their faith alone within them that heals them, but the blame is transferred to another when it doesn't happen. Which is it? It is almost an accusation here that "they could not" as if they did not connect me to my own faith enough. The notion I guess would be that Jesus better facilitated people's faith in themselves. Scripturally however, while there are a few instances where Jesus pointed out other's faith, there are also the thousands (the all that were brought to Him) that were healed without reference to their faith suggesting that faith may put one in proximity to Jesus, but it is the Father confirming and glorifying HIS son Jesus as Christ that actually does the work. So faith brings us closer to where we can observe/partake in the confirmation of the HIS Son. Faith should have lead this generation to prayer and fasting, instead they are gathered in multitudes blaming the perceived failings of Christ's empowered disciples, looking for political advantage.